<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>When First You Caught My Eye by kindanerdy</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22779952">When First You Caught My Eye</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindanerdy/pseuds/kindanerdy'>kindanerdy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Idrilla Sylvas [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, First Meetings, POV Solas (Dragon Age), Pre-Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:48:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,231</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22779952</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindanerdy/pseuds/kindanerdy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Solas' POV of his first meeting with Idrilla.<br/>He had seen the Dalish elf as she lay dying, with his magic in her hand, but never expected to see her alive and moving around. Why is it that he suddenly feels drawn to her?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Lavellan/Solas, Lavellan &amp; Solas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Idrilla Sylvas [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637695</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When First You Caught My Eye</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Another corrupted spirit slashed at him and his heart was filled with despair. How had his plans come to this? How many spirits would have to die for his mistake? Despair or not, he couldn’t allow himself to be injured now. The woman, the <em>Dalish</em>, with <em>his</em> power in her hand, showed no signs of ever waking again.</p>
<p>His attempts to reclaim the power were for naught, as were his attempts to seal these rifts without the power. It was time to go before the human Seeker decided to kill him for his inability to do anything, as she had threatened.</p>
<p>Just as he made that decision, two more corrupted spirits targeted him. Cursing under his breath, he froze one, turning to the other just in time to see it seize as lightning traveled through it. At the same time he heard the Seeker’s battle-cry as she stormed into the battle. Quickly dispatching the stunned “demon” in front of him, and hoping against hope that the mage the Seeker had brought was the Dalish, he turned toward his other still-frozen opponent, just in time for Master Tethras to put a bolt through it, shattering it.</p>
<p>Looking around, slightly desperately, he quickly located the Dalish who bore the mark of his power. Grabbing her hand he pulled her to the rift, shouting, “Quickly, before more come through!” Holding his breath he crossed his fingers that this worked. If it didn’t, all hope was lost. But it did! The moment her hand was raised to the rift it connected, and as she wrenched her hand away from the rift and out of his grip, the rift closed.</p>
<p>She stared at her hand for a moment, then looked up at him. “What did you do?” she asked him.</p>
<p>Hearing her voice and looking into her eyes for the first time he felt… he wasn’t sure what he felt. Her voice was melodious and lilting, but quiet and almost…unsure? Her eyes, which had remained closed while he had treated her, were a deep forest green. They took on an almost eerie glow in the light of the Breach. Her hair, which he had thought to be brown, was showing new color in the light of day, or what light could come through the obstruction of the Breach. The presumed brown hair was actually a dark auburn color.</p>
<p>It was only his centuries of experience that allowed him to keep his thoughts behind a calm facade as he answered, “<em>I </em>did nothing. The credit is yours.” He briefly wondered how she’d react to such a claim – would she gladly take all the credit, or…</p>
<p>“<em>I</em> closed that thing?” She asked incredulously. “How?”</p>
<p>Pleased that she’d both tentatively trusted his answer, and questioned how, a sign of an inquisitive mind, he replied, “Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake – and it seems I was correct.” He allowed a little pride to seep into his tone at the end to make it seem like he hadn’t been mostly sure that it would work.</p>
<p>Before she could answer him, however, Seeker Cassandra butted in. “Meaning it could close the Breach itself.”</p>
<p>Stifling his unwarranted irritation, given that his conversation with the Dalish hadn’t been private, he replied, “Possibly.” Turning back to <em>her</em> he said, “It seems you hold the key to our salvation.”</p>
<p>Her face passed quickly from terror to resignation to resolve, but before she could say anything in response Varric spoke.</p>
<p>“Good to know! Here I thought we’d be ass-deep in demons forever,” he said. Solas pondered his irritation at such interruptions. He wouldn’t usually mind, but he seemed to crave <em>her</em> responses, <em>her</em> voice which seemed to capture him.</p>
<p>As Varric walked up  to her to introduce himself, he heard her say under her breath (quietly enough that if he had been an average elf he wouldn’t have heard her), “Whose ass? ‘Cause yours isn’t all that far off the ground…”</p>
<p>He stifled a chuckle as Varric said, “Varric Tethras, rogue, storyteller, and, occasionally, unwelcome tagalong,” he added, winking at Cassandra who scowled at him in response.</p>
<p>“Lovely to meet you, Varric,” the Dalish woman replied politely.</p>
<p>He had to refrain from rolling his eyes, thinking of all the meaningless chatter and <em>complaining</em> the child-of-the-stone was capable of and said, “You may reconsider that stance in time.”</p>
<p>“Awww,” Varric said, feigning hurt. “I’m sure we’ll become great friends in the valley, Chuckles.”</p>
<p>“Absolutely not!” The seeker cut in. “Your help is appreciated, Varric, but…”</p>
<p>“Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker?” Varric said, cutting Cassandra off. Brave man. “Your soldiers aren’t in control anymore. You <em>need</em> me.”</p>
<p>The seeker made a very disgusted noise, but seemed to accept the argument.</p>
<p>“My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions,” he said, turning his attention back to the Dalish. “I am pleased to see you still live.”</p>
<p>Varric scoffed. “He <em>means</em> ‘I kept that mark from killing you while you slept’,” Varric asserted.</p>
<p>Solas looked away for a second, knowing that he’d done very little. When he looked back the Dalish was staring at him. “Thank you, for that,” she said simply, then added, “You seem to know quite a bit about it…?”</p>
<p>Before he could reply the Seeker interrupted again. Solas had to grit his teeth for a second to keep up his act of “humble apostate”.</p>
<p>“Like you, Solas is an apostate,” Cassandra said, unnecessarily in Solas’ opinion. His status as a mage should be fairly obvious.</p>
<p>“Technically, Seeker, all mages are now ‘apostates’,” he told her calmly. Turning back to the person he really <em>wanted</em> to be speaking to he said, “My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage. I came to offer whatever help I could with the Breach, for if it is not closed we are all doomed, regardless of origin.” He gave her a sad smile and ducked his head, adding, “And you should only thank me if we manage to close the Breach without killing you in the process.” Before Cassandra could interrupt, again, he turned to her and said, “You should know, the magic involved here is unlike any I have ever seen.  Your prisoner is a mage, yet I find it difficult to imagine <em>any</em> mage having such power.” <em>At least in this Fadeless world</em>, he added in thought.</p>
<p>“Understood,” Cassandra said. “We must get to the forward camp quickly.”</p>
<p>“Well Bianca’s excited!” Varric inserted.</p>
<p>Everyone had started moving toward the path forward, but at his comment the Dalish paused. “Bianca?”</p>
<p>“Yea!” Varric replied, caressing his crossbow. “Ain’t she beautiful? Bianca and I have been through a lot together.”</p>
<p>“You… named your crossbow Bianca?” she asked, bemused.</p>
<p>“Of course. Speaking of names, I didn’t catch yours…?” Varric probed.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s Rilla. Idrilla Sylvas,” she replied easily.</p>
<p>He gave her an interested look. <em>Little rebel and freedom’s breath… </em>he thought, <em>I wonder how she got those names? Did she choose them, or were they gifted to her, I wonder?</em> And every other Dalish he’d met had included an “of Clan ____” in their introduction. Combined with her skin-colored, barely visible Vallaslin, perhaps she wasn’t so Dalish as he’d thought.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>